Neff

With hot pink adorning decorations and participants, the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer of Central Pennsylvania walk is set for Oct. 12 at Peoples Natural Gas Field.

Pink has become “symbolic of the hope of finding a cure,” media relations coordinator Jill Brubaker Reigh said, which is why they continue to host the event each year.

Central Pennsylvania’s 2025 ambassador Bethany Neff, 38, also said pink “rallies a community of survivors and people that want to help.”

A native of Claysburg who now lives in Blandburg, Neff was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer nearly two years ago. After six rounds of chemotherapy, she had a double mastectomy and 16 lymph nodes removed in April 2024.

“Something I’ve been telling everyone throughout this experience is to not worry about the little things,” Neff said, adding that “you never know what the world is going to throw at you.”

At one point, Neff said she felt “lost” before being asked by her occupational therapist to be the ambassador. She then joined Making Strides, along with forming her own group called the “Order of the Blue Phoenix,” inspired by the creature’s “strength and resilience.”

Committee co-chair Linda Hilton was also diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 38, “and I’m still here,” she said.

Hilton said she found out about the walk and began volunteering, snowballing into her bigger role today.

The walk has been around for more than 20 years, according to Reigh.

It “brings people together,” Hilton said, because many participants come “year after year” to support breast cancer research.

Starting at the Peoples Natural Gas Field, American Cancer Society senior development manager Sharon Okeiff-Fusco said the three-mile walk will end on the field as a “reward.”

“On an average day, you don’t get to go out on the field,” she said. “It’s something special they permit us to do.”

Okeiff-Fusco said the walk fuels “cancer research to make sure people have support.”

“A lot of people are impacted by (breast cancer),” Reigh said, “and one of the things that helps the community is the money that is raised.”

Last year, Hilton said they collected $115,000 in donations, so this year, their goal is to raise $119,000.

With received donations, the organization allocates money toward research, information, education and services such as transportation and hotel stays during treatment.

People who are sick usually feel “sick, alone, helpless and hopeless, but when you feel the compassion of those around you, it gives you the strength to keep going and survive,” Reigh said.

To spread breast cancer awareness, Reigh said she hopes people get tested and conduct monthly at-home checkups.

She said early detection is “key to survival” because breast cancer is “treatable if you catch it early enough.”

Neff said she’s eager to use her role as ambassador to spread awareness about breast cancer and the significance of early detection, she said.

“Even if I inspire one person to catch it in time, then everything I went through would be worth it.”

If you go

What: Making Strides Against Breast Cancer of Central PA walk

When: Registration starts at 12:30 p.m., walk begins at 2 p.m.

Where: Peoples Natural Gas Field

Price: Free; visit makingstrideswalk.org/centralpa